Milkmen Cry For Fans To Stop Spilling Milk Over Indian Actor Rajinikanth

Here's a reason to cry over spilled milk.

For decades, fans of the 65-year-old Tamil actor Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, best known as Rajinikanth, "have regularly bathed pictures of him in thousands of gallons of milk, a sign of devotion usually reserved for Hindu idols," The New York Times reported.

S. A. Ponnusamy, president of the Tamil Nadu Milk Dealers Employees Welfare Association, opposes the practice, and said die-hard fans can pour anywhere between 11,000 to 16,000 gallons of milk per day in the weeks following a new release.

"When 15% of Tamil Nadu's population does not have money to buy milk every day, does this kind of wastage look good?” Ponnusamy said.

The milk dealers urge Rajinikanth to dissuade his fans from spilling perfectly good milk and instead organize blood, eye, and organ donations at theaters screening his new movie, Kabali.

"We don't treat him as an actor, but as a god," said Rajini Santosh, president of the Karnataka State Rajinikanth Fans Welfare Association. "Nobody says anything about the milk used in temples. For us, we can see god in him, so why should we stop?"